On the evening of 1 January Clemens arrived in Indianapolis and delivered “Roughing It in Nevada,” based on selections from his forthcoming book. The next day the Indianapolis Journal reported that he had addressed “a large, refined, and very appreciative audience, with the single exception of one young lady, who looked on mournfully while her neighbors were convulsed with laughter” (“Personal” and “Mark Twain,” 2 Jan 72, 4). Clemens had delivered this “new lecture”—the third since the start of his tour on 16 October—no more than a dozen times, and since its introduction on 7 December he had twice rewritten it, once after performing what he called “the germ of it” on 7 and 8 December ( L4 , 514), and again after the Chicago Tribune published a detailed synopsis of it on 20 and 24 December. While reworking “Roughing It” he fell back on his previous offering, “Artemus Ward, Humorist,” intermittently through 27 December. That lecture, first performed on 23 October, had received some stinging criticism from local reviewers, which no doubt reinforced his decision to replace it. Redpath prepared a new “Lyceum Circular” announcing “Roughing It,” with extracts from several early reviews so that lecture committees could “advertise it properly” ( L4 , 562). This new circular must have been available by 31 December, for on 1 January the Indianapolis Journal quoted one of its extracts in a lecture announcement (“Amusements,” 4; L4 , 478, 480 n. 3, 481–82 n. 18, 482–83 n. 1, 486, 488 n. 1, 511–25 passim). For Clemens’s 1871–72 lecture schedule, and a facsimile of the circular for “Roughing It,” see L4 , 557–63.

On 11 December Clemens had expressed his concern to Redpath about the turnout expected for his 24 January lecture in New York City, asking George Fall to confirm that his appointment was indeed for a “regular course” selling “season tickets” ( L4 , 514). Redpath and Fall surely did so, perhaps in a letter Clemens replied to here, but failed to “comfort” him (see also 26 Jan 72 to Redpathclick to open link). The previous October, Clemens had been unable to “fetch” the “chuckle-headed Dutch” of Bethlehem and Allentown, Pennsylvania, with the first lecture of his tour, “Reminiscences of Some un-Commonplace Characters I have Chanced to Meet” ( L4 , 472 n. 1, 474, 475 n. 1). He was now engaged to appear in seven other Pennsylvania towns, beginning with Kittanning on 12 January.

Within the last two weeks, Clemens had paid the balance owed on $12,500 borrowed from Jervis Langdon in 1869 to purchase an interest in the Buffalo Express. He had also sent $300 to Olivia for their quarterly house rent and $300 to his mother in Fredonia ( L4 , 338–39 n. 3, 526–27).

The Boston Lyceum Bureau charged its lecturers a 10 percent commission on all fees they collected from local committees. Clemens’s fees for the 1871–72 season, as recorded in his lecture appointment book, totaled $9,690 through the end of January. Not recorded there were the fees for his last three lectures, all in February, but they evidently added $200 to his total. He paid the commission in two installments, sending $704.69 on 13 January and $260 on 7 March, at the same time withholding $24.31 for unusual expenses he said the bureau itself should bear (Redpath and Fall, 1–16; 13 Jan 72 to OLCclick to open link; 7 Mar 72 to Redpath and Fallclick to open link; Eubank, 132).